(music) Welcome back on this Friday. Last time we were together on Wednesday, we looked at Psalm 77. Asaph, the author of the psalm, was deeply despondent. So despondent, he couldn't even sleep. That's what he says in verse 4. There are physical dimensions to despondency, and we're going to look at that today in this episode, and what to do when despondency hits.

It's another episode we recorded live in Nashville. Here it is. We got an email from an anonymous woman who asked this. Pastor John, hello. In a previous episode of this podcast, back in 2018, in APJ 1157, you mentioned at the very end of the episode, in a brief little mention, "the sin of despondency." I've never heard that before.

Can you explain what that is? What is despondency, and why is it considered a sin against God? That's a necessary question because it could easily be misunderstood. I went back and listened to it. What did I really say? And what I said was, "I jog," I said, "I jog to," I forget the verb I used, preempt or avoid or lessen, "my bent toward the sin of despondency." I jog to diminish my bent toward the sin of despondency.

Now, before I define despondency and what's going on there, why I think it can be right to call it a sin, there's an assumption in saying you can jog to avoid sin. That's a pretty amazing statement, and I really want that to be felt here because I built the APJ around it.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, "Don't let a husband and a wife separate from each other," that is, stop having sexual relations, except briefly in order to devote yourself to prayer and fasting. "Then come together, lest Satan tempt you." Huh. Which means that an appropriately frequent and satisfying sexual intimacy in marriage is a protection against lust and fornication and adultery.

That's what it says. Huh. So there is a physical phenomenon called having sex, which can lessen the likelihood that you will sin. Now, that's jogging and moroseness or self-pity or dismal attitudes in my life are similarly related. If I don't get exercise, I am more vulnerable to discouragement, depression, feeling dismal, feeling excessively sad.

Therefore, I know whatever, you know, there are names for it in the brain, goes on, I'm going to fight. I'm going to fight that. And the same thing is true of sleep. If you are prone to be irritable, if you get five hours of sleep, it is God's will that you get eight.

Because it's a sin to be irritable. OK, make that point. Physical steps in life are means to avoiding certain sins. Why would you call despondency a sin? One reason is because I'm going to come back and qualify it. So hang on. One reason is that the psalmist fights against it.

Psalm 42, 5. Why are you downcast, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, you shall again praise him. In other words, the psalmist got mad at themselves. When they were despondent. So I say if they're getting mad at themselves because they're despondent, then we shouldn't be despondent.

Now, you don't have to call it sin right away, but you should not like it. And want to get it gone, get rid of it. That's one reason. Paul said in Romans 14, 23, whatever is not from faith is sin. And I suspect that my giving way to despondency is not owing to how good my faith is.

I have let the fight of faith lapse. And I'm just sliding right in to despondency. That's what I was getting at in that podcast. Now, I think my thoughts about Jesus in Gethsemane here are going to be helpful to you, because you all do get despondent, right? It's just nobody in this room who doesn't move into discouragement seasons or depressed seasons or sad seasons.

Everybody does. And you're going to say, well, am I automatically sinning when that onslaught comes? No. And the reason I say no is because Jesus said in John 12, 27, he said, "Now is my soul troubled." Remember that sentence? Gethsemane night. Now is my soul troubled. Now, that's the same word in Greek that he used in chapter 14, verse 1, where he says, "Let not your hearts be troubled." Believe in God.

Believe also in me. Jesus never sinned, ever. He didn't sin in thought. He didn't sin in emotion. He didn't sin in deed. He never sinned, and he was troubled on the night before he died. So the question then becomes for me, like, oh, the Bible's got a contradiction in it.

Baloney. That's so naive to draw conclusions like that when the author himself knows exactly what he's doing, and Jesus knew what he was doing. What you do is you go to Gethsemane, and you say, what did you do, Jesus? What did you do when this came, this feeling came to you, which you're describing as troubled, which I've been troubled.

My cross comes at me. I see it coming, and I feel that. What did he do? And I'm just, let me just point out what he did. This is coming from Mark 14, 3, verse following. Number one, he chose a few. Peter, James, John, he chose three, and he went off.

He left the others, and he went off. Number two, he poured out his soul to them. My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. He said that to them. Number three, he asked them to pray, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Pray for me, pray for you.

Fifth or fourth, I'm losing count. He poured out his soul to his father. It says he fell on the ground and prayed, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. He's not sinning. He's not sinning, and his heart is very troubled about what's coming in the next few hours.

Will he be able to make it? And he's crying out, Father, if it were possible, let this cup pass from me. And then he rested in the sovereignty of God. Not my will, but yours be done. He surrendered to God, and the last thing he did, it's not mentioned there, but it is in Hebrews 12.

For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of God. I do not know where the line is crossed as you move into an emotional downer where it becomes sin. But it does eventually, and it does where you quit fighting.

You just surrender. You don't do what Jesus did. You just say, well, that's the way I'm wired, or I've got that kind of personality, or nobody knows the trouble I've seen. And so you just surrender. And I would say the evidence that your hardship is not a sin is because of the strategies you have undertaken to fight it.

If you were there in Nashville, thanks for joining us. If you were not there, you can hear all five of our recordings. They're all online as of right now. They include APJ episode 1861 on the 30th anniversary of Pastor John's bestselling book, Let the Nations Be Glad, and APJ 1877 on what makes for a good musical worship experience, and then APJ 1882, our first episode of 2023, on John Piper's favorite things, and APJ 1885 on getting the Sunday morning worship vibe right.

And now finally, this episode, APJ 1887 on what to do when despondency hits. You can find those episodes at AskPastorJohn.com. Well, Monday we talk about quitting, quitting jobs, quitting ministry, quitting pastoring, quitting. When should I quit? And maybe as important, what should I be doing today as I think about quitting tomorrow?

That's up on the other side of the weekend. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Monday. Thanks for listening. you